New Zealand Steel
New Zealand Steel is a major steel plant at Glenbrook in New Zealand. It produces from the on the west coast of the North Island, plentiful iron sand steel. The sand is broken down to the coast and mixed with water pumped through an underground pipeline to the plant and stored there for processing.
The plant is connected to the mission Bush railway branch line. Trains with coal and lime supply the factory every day, steel and iron products are also transported across the web.
New Zealand Steel Limited was founded in 1965 by the New Zealand government. A year later the construction of the plant began in Glenbrook. The production plant began in 1968 with the manufacture of steel products from imported steel for the domestic market and the Pacific Islands. In the meantime, the company had developed a process for the direct reduction of iron sand (iron oxide ) to iron. This led in 1970 to start up the iron and steel production, the billets produced. The expansion continued in 1972 continued with the commissioning of pipe production and a primer line 1982. At this time t of steel and iron per year were produced in the Middle 300,000. In the era of the ' Think Big ' of New Zealand's industrialization, the factory was modernized.
1987 New Zealand Steel was acquired by the company Equiticorp. However, this was during the New Zealand stock market crash in the same year in bankruptcy. 1989 was acquired by the New Zealand Steel Helenus Corporation, Fisher & Paykel, Steel & Tube, ANZ National Bank and BHP Billiton was formed. 1992 BHP acquired through the purchase of the shares of Fisher & Paykel and Steel & Tube, a majority of 81 % of the shares. The company was then renamed BHP New Zealand Steel Limited, but named a year later as part of its listing on the New Zealand stock exchange in New Zealand Steel back.
The plant annually produces about 650,000 tons of steel, thus covering most of the steel demand in New Zealand. Rebar is, however, manufactured by Pacific Steel. The plant employs around 1,300 employees, added 200 external employees of contractors, so is the work of New Zealand's largest industrial company by number of employees.